Shifting Life

41. Blindside

It was instinct. Jacklyn shifted to protect Matt. She pummeled through the change, but didn't lose time getting her bearings on the other side. The snake man was dangerous. She rose on her hind legs. Her head hit the ceiling. She stomped blindly, hoping to feel Cravens lean body give under her hooves. She crashed through a table instead. Things broke around her, furniture collapsed. Framed pictures jumped off the walls and landed hard, breaking the glass and turning ornamental frames into wood chips.

Jacklyn made sure she stayed between Craven and Matt, like a half ton solid shield.

The snake man wanted Matt's coat, he'd have to take her down first.

Glass had said Matt must wear the coat.

Craven backed off a few steps, but he didn't fool her. His eyes were set on the coat.

She felt how deeply Craven needed the coat. She knew his only chance to heal was the coat. He had to get his hands on it.

Craven's pain gave a bitter taste in her mouth. Jacklyn remembered the pain from the poisoned dagger in her side. Her flesh burned cold from the memory. She sensed Craven's tightly coiled desperation. His hope didn't taste much better.

It didn't change anything. Craven was demon breed and he was a threat. To Matt and to her.

Craven charged, attempting to get around her.

Jacklyn turned fast. She kicked hard. She kept kicking and neighing, going after Craven with hooves, teeth and her large solid head. Jacklyn smashed a shelf, another tipped over and crashed to the floor. Jacklyn turned another chair into fire wood. She made huge holes in the flimsy wall. In the corner of her eyes she noted the silhouettes of the witch woman and the data guy. They seemed intent on staying, keeping close to the walls to stay out of Jacklyn's demolition zone.

Jacklyn sensed other forms sneaking into the room, but there was nothing to see except shadows looming in the corners.

Only Craven had her full focus, the reek of his blood filling the room, keeping her on his trail.

Jacklyn attacked him. Her heavy hooves making the floorboards bend and crack.

Craven moved backwards, fast and fluid like rushing water. He was nimble, but injured. His blood dripped on the floor.

They moved back and forth. Jacklyn's size made it harder for her to move swiftly in the cramped quarters. Craven used it against her, again and again.

Round and round they went, the background fading into a dark blur.

Jacklyn sensed he was doing it for a purpose but she couldn't stop without leaving Craven an opening to get to Matt.

Craven dove for the axe drilled into the floor.

Jacklyn had put it deeper into the wood than he'd expected. Angry, he pulled the axe's handle hard upward.

Jacklyn sensed Cravens wound tear open before she saw the shock of pain in his face. She almost heard his flesh tear. Blood gushed from his back and abdomen and down his pants when he stumbled away from the unclaimed axe.

There was a new sticky sound when Craven moved his feet. Dark crimson footprints marked his steps.

The light in the room flickered.

Jacklyn attacked Craven relentlessly. The darkness in the room grew denser. She heard Craven's breath becoming labored. She heard the furious beats of a strange heart in his chest.

The room with its broken furniture began to fade. They circled each other in the oldest of dances, old as the worlds themselves. Hunter and prey. Prey and hunter. It was just the two of them, beyond good and evil, light and dark. Both had their part till the dance was done.

Jacklyn eased fully into her part as hunter and darkness crept closer.

She dashed forward. Craven fell on his back. He tried to turn on his side to get up, but couldn't.

Jacklyn glared, not trusting him. She towered over Craven, senses already flooding with triumph. She neighed and thrashed her head wildly. She rose, her front legs moving in the air.

Craven looked up at her, fierce hate in his amber colored snake eyes. He blinked once, his head fell back on the floor with a thud, all fierceness gone from his gaze. She couldn't tell if the amber eyes still saw anything at all.

Jacklyn hovered over Craven, hesitating. Waiting for him to come around and try again. She ached to crush him under her hooves.

Craven's heartbeat stopped.

For the past minutes, Jacklyn hadn't been able to hear anything else, but instead of silence, an all too familiar static noise filled the void. A deep frequency, she sensed it like a vibration in her bones as much as she heard it.

Jacklyn's ears twitched.

No.

Raw fear welled up inside her. She'd heard this sound before. She'd seen this kind of darkness before. She'd assumed the billowing darkness around her was Craven's doing, but Craven was out.

She had been hellbent on stopping Craven. She had been too occupied to notice. Jacklyn could make out the ominous shapes of the dark creatures moving inside the black smoke. They filled the room. They were everywhere, yellow eyes glimmered in the darkness. She saw glimpses of sharp white teeth.

Jacklyn froze.

She was the beacon summoning them. Her fear and hate for Craven made them come. She had fed their frenzy fighting Craven.

This was her doing.

Toby ran into view, barking furiously. Dark strands of dark smoke grasped for him, tiny claws and jaws growing solid before Jacklyn's eyes. A first red streak bloomed in Toby's white fur. He yelped.

Jacklyn broke through the paralyzing panic. She nabbed Toby by the skin of his neck, trying not to bite too hard. She thrashed around the room. She stumbled over a rug cast aside, but no Matt. She made out Veronica the witch, huddling with the analyst inside a pentagram carved into the floorboards.

Veronica met her eyes and the ice cold dread in Jacklyn's big horsey heart told her Matt was gone.

The smoke creatures came at her from all sides, like a dark lethal tide rising.

Jacklyn saw Veronica's lips form a single word: Go!

With Toby dangling from her mouth, Jacklyn ran.